Biggest Fish, a Best Kept Secret

Written by Dr Jennifer Marohasy on June 24, 2024. Posted in Current News

There is this mantra, this insisting from some that there is no impact from agriculture – while there is this mantra, this insisting from others that agriculture is killing the same Great Barrier Reef

Never have I heard anyone mention in the same breath the fish and corals of the SS Yongala historic shipwreck and its proximity to the ‘highest exposure levels’ of nutrients and sediments attributed to agricultural runoff.

The Yongala is arguably one of the ten best dive sites in the world – that is correct one of the ten best dive sites in the world and not far from the mouth of the Burdekin River.

Divers rave about it, because of the abundance and diversity of really big fish, rays and sharks … not to mention the beautiful soft corals including Gorgonian fans.

I was so fortunate to dive the SS Yongala just before I left for Seattle.  The two dives, on sunrise, were awesome.   They were so, so good!   My dive buddies and I were circled by a giant sting ray, a Megatrygon microps.

It was as curious of us, as we were of it.  Jessica captured much of the encounter on her GoPro, and I’ve made a little video of the same with a link from this blog post, CLICK HERE.

Then last week I flew back from Cairns, from visiting my mother – and I got exactly the aerial photographs that I wanted, showing just how much agriculture there is near this very best dive site.

So, I’ve posted again, this time my photographs from that Qantas flight, CLICK HERE.

And in between I wrote something about a new PETA campaign against agriculture, and I include pictures showing flood plumes from the farmland reaching the Yongala, CLICK HERE.

I do love mud, and so do the many waders including the Eastern Curlews that migrate to Russia and back to the Cairns foreshore most years.

I got some photographs of all that mud too, while I was in Cairns, CLICK HERE.

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